Farmington Hills Residents Will Vote On 1.7 Mill Increase

FARMINGTON HILLS (WWJ) – More than a dozen local communities have proposals on their ballots to increase funding for public safety.

In Farmington Hills, residents are voting on a 1.7 mill increase for police and fire that would pump about 5 million dollars a year into their budget. Farmington Hills Fire Chief Corey Bartsch says they’ve tried everything else.

“The city has been trying to put this off and to do it through reductions as long as possible however we are at a point now where we need to have the support of the citizens to be able to continue operating the way that we do,” said Bartsch.

The recent decrease in the tax base in Farmington Hills has fallen 26%. If approved, the millage increase would cost the homeowner of a $150,000 house approximately $127 a year.

Bartsch says when you couple the negative factors: “Decrease in staffing and decrease in revenues and an increase in call volume there are problems with that and this millage, while it’s not to increase our staffing it’s to at least allow us to keep what we currently have.”